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Hulk
The Hulk is a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Reserved physicist Dr. Bruce Banner is accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented, while trying to save Rick Jones. Subsequently, when Banner is angry, he involuntarily transforms into a huge, incredibly strong creature known as the Hulk. "You're making me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." —Bruce Banner (in The Hulk) Beginning in comic books in the early 1960s, the character has since been depicted in various other media: in a live-action television series, in three animated series, various video games, and through the use of CGI two films. Origin and history The Hulk was created by Stan Lee in 1962. Before creating the Hulk, Stan Lee made the Fantastic Four. Response from the fans indicated that readers' favorite character was the Thing, so Stan Lee wanted to make a character much like him. The Hulk's first series was The Incredible Hulk. The series was only six episodes. After that the Hulk just went into other peoples comics until he was in Tales to astonish the soap opera for super heroes. Tales to Astonish only had the Hulk for half of each episode then another super hero. Then Tales to Astonish became The Incredible Hulk again. Incarnations Gray Hulk/Joe Fixit - The Gray Hulk (though possibly not the original) worked for a time as a Las Vegas enforcer called "Joe Fixit". The Gray Hulk has average intelligence, although he occasionally displays knowledge and intellectual ability normally associated with Banner. He is cunning, crafty, hedonistic, arrogant, and distant, with a hidden conscience. In most of Las Vegas appearances, he appears only at night. According to the Leader, the Gray Hulk persona is strongest during the night of the new moon and weakest during the full moon. This aversion to sun/moon light vanished when the Gray Hulk's night-induced transformation trigger was later removed. Although he is the smallest of the Hulks, the Gray Hulk towers over the average human. He prefers to dress in tailored suits. Joe Fixit's base strength level is also the lowest of the three primary Hulk incarnations. While in a functionally calm emotional state, Joe Fixit is able to lift about 70 tons. Savage Hulk - The most common version of the Hulk, possesses the mental capacity and temperament of a young child and typically refers to himself in the third person. He often claims that he wants to be left alone. The Savage Hulk is usually depicted as green-skinned and heavily-muscled with a loping, ape-like gait. While in a functionally calm emotional state, or at least as calm as the Hulk can be, the Savage Hulk is capable of lifting about 100 tons. Mindless Hulk - Nightmare, in an attempt to find new ways to hurt his enemy Doctor Strange by going through his friends, penetrated Bruce Banner's mind and discovered his influence had an unexpected side effect; a new personality began to develop out of Banner's worst visions of the Hulk. At this period in Banner's life, he had just gained control over the Hulk's body, but was constantly on alert and terrified this was just temporarily, and that the Hulk, which he saw as nothing but a savage and destructive beast, would break free once more when the world least expected it. Far from being identical with the original Hulk, this version was based on a nightmarish imagination made of all of Banner's worst fears and ideas of his former alter ego. Nightmare continued to manipulate and increase his influence, allowing this dark incarnation to gradually rise to the surface. It finally became its own personality after Banner made his "psychic suicide", allowing it to break free of Banner's domination. Eventually, with the assistance to Doctor Strange, entered the Dimension of Nightmare as a similar manifestation as Mindless Hulk, threatening to kill him. Devil Hulk - The malevolent personality of Bruce Banner, personifying all of Banner's resentment at the way he is treated by the world. He is also one of the Hulk's enemies, constantly threatening to escape confinement in Banner's mind and destroy the world that has tormented and abused them, simultaneously leaving nothing intact that Banner hold dear. He first appeared when Banner was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease, and Banner used a machine to travel into his own mind and make a deal with the three dominant Hulks that they would gain control of his body once the disease became too much for him to bear. The Devil Hulk was revealed at this point, but escaped a short while afterward when the machinations of General Ryker shattered the barriers keeping the Devil Hulk imprisoned. Fortunately, he was contained long enough for a cure for Banner's condition to be found, before finally being contained in Banner's subconscious by Banner, the Savage Hulk and Joe Fixit; the Professor Hulk remaining out in the real world to help scientists such as Doctor Samson and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four find a cure for the disease. Merged/Professor Hulk - The Merged Hulk is the merger of Banner and the Savage and Gray Hulks. The Merged Hulk was later retconned into The Professor. The Professor, rather than being a merger of the three core personalities, was interpreted as a fourth, separate personality that represented Banner's ideal self. The primary difference between the two is that the Merged Hulk demonstrated aspects of the Banner, Gray Hulk and Savage Hulk personalities (also possessing Banner's intelligence, Joe Fixit's cunning, and the Savage Hulk's size and strength), while the Professor did not. The Merged Hulk was even prone to uttering "Hulk will smash!", which was the Savage Hulk's most common catch phrase. The Merged Hulk was an associate and leader of the team of superheroes called the Pantheon. Despite his exaggerated musculature, the Merged Hulk had a relatively normal looking face, resembling that of Banner. The Professor personality was defined during writer Paul Jenkins' run as a "revelation" that the Merged Hulk was not actually a merger of the three personalities but rather a separate personality altogether. Unlike the Merged Hulk, the Professor was physically distinguished by having a pony tail, which the Merged Hulk did not. Jenkins justified this by retconning into the Hulk's continuity a new character named Angela Lipscomb (modeled after Jenkins' own girlfriend) who knew more about Bruce Banner than even Doc Samson. Lipscomb confronted Samson with her observations of the Professor and Doc Samson validated them, despite events presented in previous issues to the contrary. The Professor is the largest of the three primary Hulk incarnations and he also possesses a higher base strength level. While in a calm emotional state, the Professor is capable of lifting about 100 tons. However, unlike the other Hulk incarnations, Bruce Banner subconsciously installed a type of safeguard within the Professor. When the Professor's anger reaches a certain level, he will transform back into Bruce Banner, though with the mind and personality of the Savage Hulk. Due to this safeguard, the Professor is ultimately the weakest of the three primary Hulk incarnations despite being the physically largest. Professor hulk has the attributes of three hulks: Gray Hulk, Savage Hulk and Banner. He is the weakest of all incantations because he will revert to Banner with Savage Hulk's mind if he gets too angry. Maestro - The Hulk of a possible future where nuclear devastation has eliminated many, if not all, Earthbound heroes and villains. Hulk was simply powered-up by these events. This highly ruthless and intelligent version rules Dystopia (it is unclear how far this territory extends, though it is implied to be immense). The Merged Hulk is contacted and brought to this future by the great-great granddaughter of Rick Jones (who survives in this time, unnaturally aged and confined to Professor X's 'Nineties' era roller-chair) in an effort to put an end to the malevolent rule of his older self. The Maestro is similar in height and build to the Merged Hulk, with a bald crown, long white hair over the sides and back, and beard. With a slight hump of the shoulders from age, the Maestro also has a more muted green skin tone and numerous warts and age spots. It is unclear if this incarnation's strength increases with rage, or what his base-level strength is, though, presumably it is equal to that of the Merged Hulk, as the younger is easily defeated in hand-to-hand combat with the older (this could, however, be a question of experience, not brute strength). The Maestro is defeated when one of Dr. Doom's time platforms is used to transport him to the moment of Banner's initial accident with the Gamma bomb; Maestro is overloaded and incinerated by the very explosion that transforms Banner into the Hulk in the first place. Guilt hulk - Known as "The Beast", the Guilt Hulk is another of Bruce Banner's personae, though this one created by his regret. The Guilt Hulk originally manifested itself in Banner's mind as his father and tormented him by forcing him to relive memories of his traumatic childhood. Eventually, the Guilt Hulk was defeated by Banner himself. The Guilt Hulk later returned after Betty's death, albeit much more powerful because of Banner's emotionally fractured state. After brutally beating the Professor and Joe Fixit, the Guilt Hulk was eventually subdued again by the Savage Hulk. Due to its monstrous size, the Guilt Hulk was physically very powerful. It also possessed claws and spikes all over its body. The Guilt Hulk also showed the ability to breathe fire on one occasion. Guilt is the largest of all incantations because he is twenty meters tall he has super strength and can breath fire Australian hulk - From the mc2 universe, he combines gray hulk savage hulk banner and the professor. The green scar - The current hulk; has the intelligence of banner the cunning of the gray hulk and strength of the savage hulk his base strength is way over 100 tons. The Hulk of World War Hulk is a cunning and more powerful version than the previous incarnations. His rage is at its most focused, due to meditation training by his ally Hiroim. This incarnation has extremely high durability, as evidenced by his ability to withstand Black Bolt's voice (later revealed to be a Skrull), whereas the Savage Hulk could not. He has had training in combat arms, including broadswords, spears, and battle shields, and is a capable leader and strategist. Another source of the Green Scar's strength in comparison to other versions is his lack of inner conflict, if not alliance, with Bruce Banner. Several instances have been shown where the Hulk and Banner have worked together strategically; most recently to disable Dr Strange. Caiera, the Green Scar's wife, understood Banner as well, and both personalities loved her equally. This is seen as the driving factor in the Banner/Hulk alliance. As a result of being caught in the explosion of the warp core of his ship which brought him to Sakaar, which destroyed the planet, Green Scar's base level of strength was dramatically increased. He can lift well over 100 tons in a functionally calm emotional state. During a recent burst of an unexplained anger in New York City, Professor X had attempted to slow down the angered beast with intense power, however the Hulk had proven to be resistant to the psionic effects of the professor. Powers and Abilities The Hulk possesses the potential for limitless physical strength depending directly on his emotional state, particularly his anger. This has been reflected in the repeated comment "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets." His durability, healing, and endurance also increase in proportion to his temper. Greg Pak described the Hulk shown during World War Hulk as having a level of physical power where "Hulk was stronger than any mortal—and most immortals—who ever walked the Earth." Pak went on to say that even then, the Hulk would lose to characters such as Galactus. The Hulk is resistant to most forms of injury or damage. He has been shown to have both regenerative and adaptive healing abilities, including growing tissues to allow him to breathe underwater, surviving unprotected in space (yet still needing to breathe), and when injured, healing from almost any wound within seconds. His powerful legs allow him to leap into lower Earth orbit or across continents. He also has less commonly described powers, including abilities allowing him to "home in" to his place of origin in New Mexico, and to see and interact with astral forms. As Bruce Banner, he is considered one of the greatest minds on Earth. He has developed expertise in the fields of biology, chemistry, engineering, and physiology, and holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He possesses "a mind so brilliant it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test." In The Science of Superheroes, Lois Grest and Robert Weinberg examined Hulk’s powers, explaining the scientific flaws in them. Most notably, they point out that the level of gamma radiation Banner is exposed to at the initial blast would induce radiation sickness and kill him, or if not, create significant cancer risks for Banner, because hard radiation strips cells of their ability to function. They go on to offer up an alternate origin, in which a Hulk might be created by biological experimentation with adrenal glands and GFP. However, these writers were not aware that in John Byrne's time writing the Hulk in the mid-1980s he explained that Banner already had an abnormal cellular structure inherited from his father's exposure to radiation which enabled his unique physiology to harness gamma radiation rather than be annihilated by it. This retcon was also used in the film by Ang Lee. Charles Q. Choi from LiveScience.com further explains that unlike the Incredible Hulk, gamma rays are not green; existing as they do beyond the visible spectrum, gamma rays have no color at all that we can describe. He also explains that gamma rays are so powerful (the highest form of light and 10,000 times more powerful than visible light) that they can even create matter - a possible explanation for the increased mass that Bruce Banner takes on during transformations. "Just as the Incredible Hulk 'is the strongest one there is,' as he says himself, so too are gamma ray bursts the most powerful explosions known." *''Super strength'': extremely strong, his strength increases depending on his anger *''Super stamina'': increases with anger *''Super durability'': very durable to many attacks; including bullets, rockets, and high frequency energy blast.increases with anger *''Regenerative'' *''Healing factor'': can heal from many wounds; increases with anger *''Ability to Increase Size'': depending on the Hulk's anger he can increase his size dramatically *''Longevity'': can live for centuries Other Media hulk-1966-animated-series.jpg|"Hulk" (1966 animated TV) (part of "The Marvel Super Heroes") Max Ferguson as Hulk Paul Soles as Bruce Banner Incredible hulk.jpg|The Incredible Hulk (1977–82, '88–90) (TV) Lou Ferrigno as Hulk Bill Bixby as David Bruce Banner incrediblehulk1982.jpg|"The Incredible Hulk" (1982–83)(animated TV) Bob Holt as Hulk Michael Bell as Bruce Banner msh-s5.jpg|"Marvel Super Heroes" (1995) (VG) Andrew Jackson as Hulk hulk96b.jpg|"The Incredible Hulk" (1996–97) Lou Ferrigno as Hulk Neal McDonough as Bruce Banner Hulk2003.jpg|''Hulk'' (2003) Lou Ferrigno as Hulk Eric Bana as Bruce Banner Hulk2008.jpg|''The Incredible Hulk'' (2008) Lou Ferrigno as Hulk Edward Norton as Bruce Banner Ih08 948cbf202a.jpg|"The Incredible Hulk" (2008) (VG) Fred Tatasciore as Hulk Edward Norton as Bruce Banner hulk10.jpg|"Planet Hulk" (Video 2010) Rick D. Wasserman as Hulk vlcsnap-117222.png|"The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" (2010–11)(animated TV) Fred Tatasciore as Hulk noImageAvailable.jpg|''The Avengers'' (2012) Lou Ferrigno as Hulk Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner Category:Characters